1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to production equipment and a production method for precipitation hardened alloy strip.
2. Description of the Related Art
One proposed structure of production equipment for alloy strip has temperature-controlling single rolls arranged in zigzag to be in contact with heated alloy strip and alternately quench one face, the surface or the rear face of the heated alloy strip (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The production equipment disclosed in Patent Document 1 is supposed to have a high energy efficiency for cooling and save both the power consumption and the installation space. Another proposed structure of production equipment has a cooling chamber located on a heat treatment metal material discharge side of an annealing furnace. Spray nozzles are provided in the cooling chamber to cool down the metal material. The pressure of an atmospheric gas in the annealing furnace is made higher than a gas pressure in the cooling chamber, so that the gas is flowed from the annealing furnace to the cooling chamber (see, for example, Patent Document 2). The production equipment disclosed in Patent Document 2 is supposed to prevent penetration of the water vapor into the furnace and assure the uniform finish shape of the metal material.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H06-272003    Patent Document 2: Japanese Paten Laid-Open No. S63-303013